Atome Bakery
Vancouver, Mainland/Southwest
Atome Bakery
Vancouver, Mainland/Southwest
Atome Bakery is a pioneering artisan online bakery with a bold vision to make healthier, essential-ingredient products available to British Columbians throughout the province. Our mission is to bring the finest French-inspired artisanal bread and pastries directly to your doorstep, ensuring that even those living in suburban or rural areas can enjoy the quality of an artisan bakery. Based in Vancouver, we pride ourselves on using only the highest quality, locally sourced ingredients and embracing traditional baking techniques, including slow fermentation for our 100% sourdough products, which benefit gut health and can be enjoyed by individuals with gluten intolerance. Our unique ready-to-bake offerings provide the convenience of fresh, homemade bread and pastries without the need to visit a bakery. Committed to sustainability, we use recyclable packaging and offer emission-free local deliveries from Whistler to Abbotsford. We rely on our partners' networks for deliveries in the rest of the province, delivering from Fort Nelson to Nanaimo, Osoyoos, and Golden. Atome Bakery is dedicated to supporting the French-speaking minority in BC, with six of our seven team members identifying French as their primary language. Recently named Company of the Year 2024 by the Francophone Chamber of Commerce of Vancouver, we continue to celebrate and share the rich heritage of French baking throughout Western Canada. We are excited to share that we have successfully expanded our deliveries into Alberta and the State of Washington earlier this year, with plans to make our high-quality bread and pastries available more widely. As we grow, our aim is to ensure that more people can access good bread, regardless of where they live. To achieve this, we need support in our growth journey. Join us in our mission to make artisanal baking accessible to everyone, everywhere. Now, your bakery is at home.
Nominations
Read below to find out why they deserve your vote in each category.
People's Choice
Why do you think you should win the Premier’s People’s Choice Award?
Atome Bakery is more than just a business; it’s a passion project born from the hearts of two French immigrants, Alice and Lucas, who moved to Vancouver in 2018. Leaving behind the rich, artisanal bread culture of France, they found themselves missing the quality and flavor of the breads and pastries they had grown up with. This longing led them to start baking their own bread, a venture that quickly transformed into a thriving bakery committed to bringing authentic, high-quality French bread to communities across British Columbia. Our journey has been deeply human, filled with stories of how our bread has touched lives and created connections. The unwavering support from our loyal customers has been the backbone of our growth, helping us ship over 5000 boxes in just one year throughout the province. Consider the French expat family in Sun Peaks who receive our products, savoring each bite as a comforting reminder of home. Or the elderly couple in Prince George, who enjoy our baguettes to relive memories of their honeymoon in Paris. There’s the busy mom of five in Abbotsford, who struggled to find convenient, healthy options for her children until she discovered our ready-to-bake products. And then there's the 30-year-old living in Golden, who, due to gluten sensitivity, had a hard time finding artisan bread she could digest, until she tried our slow-fermented sourdough. These are not just customers; they are part of the Atome Bakery family, each with their unique stories and needs that our bakery meets. Our bread is slow-fermented, making it accessible to those with gluten sensitivities, so they too can enjoy the pleasure of artisan bread. It’s ready in just 30 minutes from frozen, offering a quick, wholesome option for busy moms who want to treat their children without sacrificing quality. And it’s delivered straight to the door, allowing senior citizens to skip a trip to the supermarket and still indulge in fresh croissants and baguettes. This emotional connection to our products is what makes Atome Bakery special. We are also proud of our impact on the French community in BC and our success in representing the French emblem of the baguette throughout Western Canada. This award would not only validate our efforts but also help us reach even more people, spreading the warmth and authenticity of wholesome breads across the province and beyond.
E-Commerce Experience Award
How have you optimized your e-commerce store to create a strong user experience for your community, (through content, education, reviews etc.) and what results have you achieved?
At Atome Bakery, optimizing our e-commerce store for a strong user experience has been a fundamental focus from the outset. Without a storefront, we recognized early on that our online presence needed to reflect the artisanal quality and convenience of our products while making the purchasing process as seamless and engaging as possible for our customers. One of the first steps we took was to design an intuitive and aesthetically pleasing website. We ensured that our site was easy to navigate, with clear categories and straightforward pathways to purchase. High-quality images and detailed descriptions of our products help customers understand exactly what they are buying, and our clean, minimalist design echoes the simplicity and purity of our ingredients. To further enhance the user experience, we hired a developer to optimize our website, focusing particularly on the subscription area. This allows customers to access a dedicated portal where they can adjust the timing of their orders, change items, upgrade their subscriptions, and more. This level of customization ensures that our customers always have control over their purchases, enhancing their overall satisfaction. We also prioritize content that educates and engages our community. Our blog features articles on the benefits of sourdough bread, the importance of slow fermentation, and tips for baking our ready-to-bake products at home. Customer reviews play a crucial role in our e-commerce strategy. We actively encourage our customers to leave reviews and share their experiences with our products, gathering close to 400 reviews to date. This feedback not only helps potential buyers make informed decisions but also allows us to continually improve our offerings based on real customer insights - this is why for instance, we added croissants to our selection earlier this year to meet our customers' feedback! We've seen an overwhelmingly positive response, with many customers sharing heartwarming stories of how our bread has become a cherished part of their lives. To refine our digital marketing strategy, we hired a marketing agency in Q1 2024 with the support of the CDAP program. This collaboration has helped us streamline our customer journey both on and off the website. Additionally, we brought in a francophone SEO consultant to implement a comprehensive SEO strategy. This initiative has doubled our website traffic, with a monthly average of 10,000 store sessions currently, up from about 5,000 last summer. We also use social media to create a vibrant community around our brand. Through platforms like Instagram and Facebook, we share behind-the-scenes looks at our baking process, customer testimonials, and user-generated content. We also collaborate with other local brands to support and emulate our communities to buy local products. This not only drives traffic to our e-commerce store but also builds a sense of community and loyalty among our customers. We have just surpassed 3,000 followers thanks to our content creation efforts. In terms of results, our optimized e-commerce store has led to significant growth. Over the past 12 months, we've seen a 15x increase in monthly online sales and a substantial rise in repeat customers, generating over $350,000 in revenues and creating 5 new employee positions. Our user-friendly design and engaging content have helped us achieve a high conversion rate, and our commitment to quality and customer satisfaction is reflected in our strong customer reviews, growing social media following and a stellar 20% churn rate only. Overall, our approach to e-commerce is about more than just selling bread; it's about creating an experience that resonates with our customers and makes them feel connected to Atome Bakery. By combining high-quality products with excellent user experience, we've built a loyal and growing customer base that values what we offer.
Why do you deserve to win the E-Commerce Experience Award?
At Atome Bakery, e-commerce is not just a supplemental tool; it's our means of revolutionizing the bakery industry. Traditionally, consumers have faced limited choices: proximity to an artisan bakery or settling for bland supermarket bread made with industrial yeast masquerading as sourdough. Our e-commerce platform disrupts this norm by offering all British Columbians access to genuine artisanal bread and pastries, regardless of their location. Our commitment to slow fermentation with 100% sourdough ensures not only superior taste but also digestive benefits, catering to those with gluten sensitivities or consumers who seek a healthier option. Through our optimized e-commerce store atomebakery.com, customers experience a seamless journey from browsing to checkout, enhanced by educational content that informs them about our ingredients, baking techniques, and sustainability practices. Our recent website enhancements, facilitated by a dedicated developer and supported by a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, have significantly boosted customer engagement and satisfaction. This approach has contributed to doubling our monthly store sessions, reflecting our growing influence and customer trust with close to 400 reviews from verified customers. For instance, here is what Roshni from Port Moody said: "Wow…just wow! Our entire family loved this bread and it was SO easy to bake. The packaging used a minimal amount of plastic and the shipping was lightning fast. So glad we are on the monthly plan, however we might have to order more each month. Thank you!". Customers also appreciate the efforts we have put in upgrading our flexible options with the new build-your-box option: " Love the flexibility of Build A Box. I love that I can change my monthly order based on what I need every time. The bread is great! I’ve been a regular customer for over a year now." from Patricia in Kelowna. Moreover, our e-commerce strategy enables us to foster a more inclusive and sustainable community. By eliminating emissions with electric vehicle deliveries from Whistler to Abbotsford and expanding into new markets like Alberta and Washington State, we're advancing accessibility to nutritious, essential-ingredient baked goods while reducing environmental impact. Our journey with e-commerce isn't just about selling; it's about challenging industry norms, providing precious shared moments around a warm baguette, and setting a new standard for excellence in online bakery experiences. Atome Bakery is proud to be at the forefront of this transformation, harnessing the power of e-commerce to deliver exceptional products and experiences that resonate deeply with our customers and communities. This dedication to innovation, quality, and customer-centricity makes us a standout contender for the E-Commerce Experience Award.